Wood and brush chippers generally require a relatively heavy high speed rotary cutter which, due to its rotative momentum, is unable to be easily or quickly stopped in the event of an emergency, for example, to prevent possible injury to the operator or damage to the cutter by the accidental feeding thereto of material having hidden metallic plates, nails or the like.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,182,917, an engine cut-out and cutter brake mechanism may be triggered by the manual actuation of either one of a pair of arms carried at opposite sides of material feed chute.
The throw out assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 3,819,121 is actuated by a pair of manually operable levers arranged at opposite sides of the material receiving platform, to permit tilting of the platform downwardly from the cutter concurrently with breaking the engine drive to the cutter.
The safety device of U.S. Pat. No. 4,260,114 has a plate supported for pivotal movement, from a substantially horizontal rest position, downwardly and forwardly into the material so as to be drawn thereby to an upright material obstructing position, or to a downwardly and forwardly inclined position wherein the material is wedged between the lower edge of the plate and the bottom wall of the feed chute. The plate is released to a material obstructing position by pivotal downward movement of the feed table when a weight in excess of a normal load of material is placed on the feed table.